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AN 



ORATION, 

BEFORE THE 

CLARIOSOPHIC SOCZETr ZNCORFOKATB, 

AND THE 

INHABITANTS OF COLUMBIA, 

ON THE 3p DECEMBER, 1827. 



BY WILLIAM J. GRAYSON, 

A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY. 



CHARLESTON: 

PRINTED BY A. E. MILLER, 

No. 4, Broad-Street. 
1828. 



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X HE friend to civil liberty, though he finds in the history 
of mankind no great cause for exultation, may yet, perhaps, 
see enough to encourage his exertions and invigorate his 
zeal. The records of our race are, indeed, little more than 
those of the tyrant and his slave, of usurpation and submis- 
sion, of unlimited excess on the part of the ruler, and rebell- 
ing misery in the subject. The glorious examples of Greece 
and Rome produced but little immediate effect on the gene- 
ral condition of mankind. The wisest, if not unable to 
conceive of mixed forms of government, were not disposed 
to think them practicable, and the brilliant republics, so 
imposing in wisdom, dignity and courage, when unable 
longer to preserve the freedom of their institutions, sunk at 
once into the unlimited and licentious power of despotism. 
A long disastrous period of ignorance and superstition suc- 
ceeded and threatened extinction to the remotest hopes of 
improvement. Yet, perhaps, to the sacred relics of the 
literature of those nations, we may trace the origin of what- 
ever love of liberty has sprung up and flourished in modern 
Europe. Her scholars, with the language, caught the lofty 
feelings of antiquity ; her youth were imbued with the spirit 
of Athens and Rome, and her princes have not been beyond 



the influence of that magic power which has commanded 
for the genius of Greece the admiration of two thousand, 
years. The invention of printing diffused the opinions of 
the scholar, by placing his books 4n the hands of the people, 
and gradually, but firmly established that tribunal of public 
opinion resistless almost even in the courts of princes. — 
Through the instrumentality of this mighty tribunal, mon- 
archs have been compelled to modify their systems, both in 
substance and form, and new governments have been estab- 
lished on the principle, that the people were the source of 
all power, and their happiness the legitimate object of the 
laws. It is not to be supposed, however, that kings are 
more disposed than formerly to abandon prerogative once 
exercised, through disinterested views for the public good, 
or that the conflict has ceased or subsided between the ad- 
herents of despotism and the friends of civil liberty. If the 
latter are cheered and invigorated, and banded together for 
the benefit of mankind, the monarchs of the world are not 
less alert to sustain the principles that naturally belong to 
them. They are combined for mutual support. They have 
conspired to put down freedom in every quarter of the globe. 
Every demand for a liberal constitution levels the bayonets 
of an army. Princes who may be disposed to ameliorate 
their governments, are overawed by their more powerful 
and despotic neighbours. The leaden sceptre of Austria 
has crushed the spirit of Italy into the dust. The wanton 
influence of France has destroyed the freedom of Spain, 
whilst England stood by, in trammels that degraded her, and 
saw the hopes of Spanish liberty germinate, only to be 
blasted. Many an eager look of hostile interposition has 
been cast towards the Republics of the south, who have 
thrown from them, like the strong man, the bonds that have 
hitherto bound their strength. Greece too, whose hold ob 



the sympathy of the civilized world has been seen in the 
contributions of every country in Europe, the birth-place of 
poetry and eloquence, the parent of heroes and patriots, to 
whom we refer for models of all that is daring in courage 
and beautiful in art, and brilliant in intellect, and pure in 
taste — Greece that is mingled with our young dreams, and 
clings to our maturer thoughts like some fair creation of 
imaginary excellence, crushed, bleeding at the foot of a bar- 
barian foe, her men slaughtered, her women and children 
sold as slaves in the Mussalman market-places; even this, 
the country of intellect throughout the world, failed in 
soliciting the aid of her Christian neighbours — because, in 
the cry and struggle for life, the call for a Republic was 
thought to have been mingled. It is not, however, what 
the courts of Europe have done in Italy and Spain, or 
omitted to do in Greece, that most concerns the American 
Republic — violence is their favourite weapon, but it cannot 
reach the mind, nor always the bodies of their opponents. — 
To us who are placed beyond the reach of the bayonets of 
emperors and kings, it becomes much more an object of 
interest to observe their systematic employment of the press 
to govern public opinion, to blind or mislead that powerful 
tribunal to which they feel themselves to be but subjects. 
It may not be uninteresting to inquire into the influence, 
which a press so controlled, and a literature formed under 
such auspices may obtain in our own country, to detect the 
causes that may assist them, and the effects they may have 
already produced, and to ask ourselves gravely and earn- 
estly, what we have done for the cause of Republicanism, 
to secure ourselves, or to redeem the pledge which we have 
long since given to the world. 

It tvas to be expected that the rulers of Europe, when 
ihey had once felt the power of the press to g^overn public 



6 

opinion, would be anxious to control it, and it unable to 
destroy books and their authors, as some are still attempting 
to do, they would, at least, endeavour to give such a direc- 
tion to literature as would make it safe or subservient to 
their views. Their schools, universities and societies, for 
the increase and diffusion of knowledge, are instruments 
consequently in the hands of government for the propaga- 
tion of such political doctrines as are agreeable to the prince. 
An immense patronage is al\<*ays ready to excite and 
reward the advocate of despotic power. The liberal poli- 
tician, however pure in intention, or excellent in character, 
is overborne by the weight of ministerial authority, and 
although safe from the fate of former martyrs of liberty, and 
in no danger of the block, he encounters the hatred and 
hostility of the rulers and aristocracy of his country. The 
intimate connection between the altar and the throne, estab- 
lished in every part of Europe, commands a large, intelli- 
gent, and influential body of men, whose interests are iden- 
tified with the monarch's power — a privileged class. Wealthy 
and enlightened, are the natural and powerful supporters of 
the throne; and the people, accustomed from infancy to 
admire and revere dignities and titles, and dazzled by the 
splendid processions of regal state, associate whatever is 
excellent on earth, with the pomp and royalty, and the 
polished manners of an ancient nobility. Trained in a 
school like this, and adapting their writings to the taste 
and prejudices of their readers, their men of talent, them- 
selves deeply imbued with the general feelings of their 
nation, in every mode, direct or indirect, by assertion, 
argument, or insinuation, task all the energies of vigorous 
and cultivated minds to eulogise and support their own 
institution at the expense of Republics. A factitious atmos- 
phere of purity and beauty, is raised around the throne of 



the monarch, revealing its glittering and deceitful exterior, 
but concealing its selfishness, profligacy and baseness. A 
fettered press gives facilities to the partizan of power, whikt 
it represses the freedom of inquiry, and the entire body^of 
European literature becomes instinct with the spirit of 
monarchy. Every department of letters exhibits the foot- 
print of this policy. We speak of the letters of that country 
more particularly, whose language is our language, whose 
books are our books, and whose gigantic minds, of other 
times, we claim as belonging also to ourselves. The scholars 
of England -have carefully and laboriously written history 
to convince the world that the ancient Republics were the 
abodes of corruption and violence, where life and property 
were equally unsafe, and where order and good government 
were known only when some usurper had destroyed the 
liberties of the people, and established his power on the 
ruins of his country. The most popular history of England 
is a skilful and eloquent defence of the despotic and pro- 
fligate house of Stuart, the more dangerous, because the 
design is concealed, and the object artfully insinuated, not 
openly avowed. The author has been accused of garbling 
and misquoting his authorities to accomplish his purpose, 
yet his eloquence, and the easy elegance of his style, are 
permitted to be a sufficient compensation for his slavish 
principles and want of integrity. With Clarendon, the 
open and more honest defender of the royal cause — Hume 
continues the popular authority for the most interesting 
period of English history, the period to which we, ourselves, 
are largely indebted for those principles of civil liberty 
which distinguish and adorn our country. The moral 
essays and the criticism, as well as the political writings of 
Johnson, speak the language of hatred to democracy, and 
of bitter enmity to its adherents and admirers. The most 



8 

Upproved elementary treatise on the common law, is intro- 
duced by an able and eloquent essay and eulogy on the 
British constitution, and whatever concessions to the cause 
of liberty may be traced here or elsewhere, it is a liberty 
after the form and fashion of the English government. We 
find, every where, the principles and feelings of the subject 
of a monarch, one limited, indeed, in his power, but hostile 
as those more despotic to Republican institutions. Nor are 
these sentiments confined to the graver departments of lite- 
rature — to their history, ethics, criticism and law. The 
English travellers who have visited America to enlighten 
their countrymen on the practical efiects of democracy, have 
found libels on American manners to command an extensive 
circulation and ready sale with the people of England.^ — 
Almost every English book of travels in America is a mass 
consequently of misrepresentation and falsehood. The 
traveller provides materials for the eager malice of the 
reviewer, and the cause of America and Republics is immo- 
lated by such high priests as Mr. Gifford, to the sceptered 
idols of their devotion. The rival Reviews of Great- 
Britain, if they disagree on all other subjects, are.in perfect 
harmony on this, and we expect from them sneer or sarcasm, 
or open and ferocious abuse in every direct reference or 
distant allusion to the manners, morals, or government of 
the United States. The writings of fiction, which have 
increased so much in number and excellence within a short 
period, are no bad index to the tastes, opinions, and man- 
ners of a nation, and are not without their influence with 
the reading part of the world. The novels of Great-Britain 
would convince us that nothing could be added to her forms 
of society of excellence or beauty. The clergy are models 
of learning and pure morals, her nobles are full of generous 
and elevated sentiments, and her king, if the writer dares to 



9 

trust his pen with so sacred a subject, combines all the ffreat 
and amiable qualities of our nature. The author must 
adopt his work to the prejudices of his countrymen, nor 
would the genius of Scott have achieved his triumphs in 
England, had his brilliant novels been subtle eulogies on 
radical principles or Republican chiefs. Of this, there was 
no danger. To convince us that the author of Waverly 
was no friend to popular rights, it was not necessary for 
him to assail the reputation of the purest and most distin- 
guished of Frenchmen — the champion of liberty in two 
quarters of the globe, whose exposure to the enmity of des- 
potism and its advocates, has been re-paid, we may hope, 
by the more than Roman triumph which attended his visit 
to America. The impression which the novels of Mr. 
Scott have upon the mind, is adverse to the cause of popu- 
lar institutions. He enlists our sympathy always on the 
side of loyalty and the prince, never in behalf of bold and 
generous resistance to oppression. The brave and the 
beautiful are devoted adherents to the king. The cause of 
freedom is supported by half-mad, half-knavish enthusiasts, 
whom it is almost a merit to extirpate. His favourite Claver- 
house, whilst he strikes down the covenanter in the midst of 
his devotions, is courteous and chivalrous, the accomplished 
gentleman, the skilful warrior, high in principle, nice in 
honor, devoted to the cause he embraces, and stern in in- 
flicting on others the utmost penalty for opposing it ; but 
whilst he spills the base blood of the plebeian with indiffer- 
ence, he is easily prevailed on to spare the follower of the 
same cause, who is so fortunate as to be a gentleman. The 
profligate Charles, who merits no sympathy, finds the best 
and bravest always ready to sacrifice their lives to his safety ; 
and the profligate house of Stuart is accompanied in their 

adversity by an exaggerated enthusiasm of devotion, calcu- 

2 



10 

lated to render sacred the cause of suffering kings. The 
villains of pre-eminence, like Tonikins and Balfour, are 
opposed to the royal cause ; and if the generous and brave 
are sometimes found in the ranks of opposition, there is 
always an apology insinuated of accident or circumstance. 
It is not intended to be said, that there is nothing amiable or 
excellent in the ranks of rebellion — to give interest to the 
story, it is necessary that there should be ; but the leaning 
of the writer is strongly with the king and the cavaliers, and 
the sympathy of his readers is carried in the same direction. 
IVJany causes have contributed to render England, more 
than formerly, hostile to the forms of Republican govern- 
ment. The separation from her of this immense country, 
inflicted on her interests, and on the national pride, wounds 
which time finds it difiicult to heal. Her privileged class 
still entertains that bitterness of resentment ^^ odium in 
longum faciensy^^ with which it would naturally regard the 
extinction of those fond hopes which pointed to America as 
an unfailing resource for younger sons and dilapidated 
families. Men, whom the people of England despised as 
dependent, had foiled and defeated her armies, trampled 
her trammels in the dust, and proceeded, like unnatural 
children, to strip their parent country of what had been her 
proudest patrimony, superiority in civil liberty, over everv 
other country of the globe. The cause of Republics became 
identified with that of their triumphant colonies, and the 
dislike to popular institutions, arising from wounded national 
pride, was exasperated to hatred by the excesses of revolu- 
tionary France. There has, consequently, been a growing 
hostility to Republican freedom in the British people, and 
all the pressure of unexampled calamity has never tortured 
any part of them into other feelings. We have taken but 
a limited and superficial view of the literature of England, 



11 

but nothing is risked in the assertion, that her books, for 
the last fifty years, have exhibited a growing enmity to 
RepubHcan govei-nment. They are more uniformly aris« 
tocratic and monarchical in their temper, and breathe the 
spirit of factitious rank, of privileged orders, of established 
church, of the excellence of monarchy, and the indefeasible 
rights of princes. 

Such are the principles and feelings of the governments 
and people of Europe, and such the character of the history, 
reviews, travels, novels, and other writings which constitute, 
for the most part, the libraries of the United States, which 
are in the hands of our youth, and by which their minds are 
tutored and formed. Is there no danger to sound principles 
to be apprehended from this source ? Are these authors 
and writings, possessing boundless influence over our tastes 
and opinions on all other subjects, powerless only to shake 
our conviction in maxims of government. What can prevent 
the mind of the American citizen from being dazzled and 
deceived as to the true character of monarchy, by the im- 
posing eloquence which sways and directs him on other 
subjects f How shall the array of beauty, with which the 
literature of Europe invests its monarchy, pass before our 
minds in all its gorgeous colouring, and find reflected in 
them no corresponding hues ? Are there no causes in the 
United States why such opinions would find easy access ? — 
Are there no minds which are not strengthened by a con- 
viction of the superiority of Republican government — none 
unassailed by doubts ? None already leaning to monarchy, 
or craving the distinction of title, to whom a privileged class 
of splendid decoration and gaudy insignia would be a wel- 
come establishment? No bigots or zealots, desirous to 
support their dogmas by the sanctions of the law, and to 



12 

reward the devotion or talent of their teachers from the' 
fulness of the national treasury ? 

It was not to be expected that, on the separation of this 
country from Great- Britain, there should be an immediate 
and total change of opinion and feelings in the great mass 
of the people. They had been educated in the principles 
of monarchy, they had long cherished a devotion to heredi-* 
tary nobles and established church ; and the courtesy of 
polished society and the purity of religion were associated 
in their minds with the prerogatives of a king. Our quar- 
rel was not with their form of government, but with their 
arrogance and oppression, and it is no ungenerous conclu- 
sion, that among the numbers who attached themselves to 
the banners of the whigs, there were not a few inconsidera- 
ble, neither for talent or influence, to whom a limited monar- 
chy, like that of England, was more agreeable than the 
untried experiment of a Republic. The opposition of Ame- 
rica to the oppression of the mother country, was by no 
means unanimous. We were a divided people, and those 
who adhered to the royal cause, and who added to a convic- 
tion of its rights and merits, the hatred to their Republican 
opponents, naturally excited by civil strife, returned to the 
country and submitted to its altered government with no 
warmth of affection to the rulers or their laws. However 
ambition or interest may have induced such men to adopt, 
apparently, more convenient opinions, the cherished ideas 
of youth, and the strong passion of manhood, would leave 
behind them traces, which length of time or change of cir- 
cumstance could not easily erase. These impressions they 
would naturally transmit to their children, and if their minds 
are still swayed by the lingering prejudices of their fathers, 
it is a result as much to be expected as deplored. The 
prosperity which has hitherto attended our country has not 



13 

been unaccompanied with its usual consequences. Wealth 
has greatly increased in the Republic. Families becoming 
wealthy, will here, as elsewhere, be prone to believe that 
power is most safely deposited with those who consider them- 
selves most interested in its proper exercise. From this 
opinion, the step is short and certain, to the acquisition and 
retention of power by intrigue and management, to the 
ready abandonment of the equalizing principles of democracy, 
and to the secret and zealous diffusion of those opinions 
more adapted to what has been called a stronger govern- 
ment. To assist these projects, there are never wanting 
plausible demagogues under the name of patriots, ready to 
pursue their own schemes of interest by becoming the in- 
struments of ambition, and lending their influence with the 
people, and their popular talents to an unholy aggression 
on the rights of their country. Neither are we deficient in 
that class of timid and fastidious citizens, who are easily 
alarmed and disgusted by the petty excesses of popular in- 
stitutions. With them, the occasional tempest of party dis- 
putes, the violence of free discussion, the personal collision 
of rival politicians, the intolerance and abuse of contending 
newspapers, excite distrust in the permanency and excel- 
lence of a Republic, and produce a disposition to repose in 
the calm of monarchical government. The intercourse with 
Europe, which has so much encreased, and will continue to 
encrease, from our citizens visiting that continent for busi- 
ness, amusement, or information, will bring, with its many 
advantages, its evils also, neither few nor unimportant.-— 
The manly and intelligent traveller will bring back to his 
own country an encreased affection for its societ}^ and gov- 
ernment. But the weak, the vain, and the luxurious, whose 
observation is more confined to the gratification of the va- 
rious petty habits of self-indulgence, will compare, with no 



14 

advantage to their own country, her rougher manners with 
the Parisian obsequiousness, and her plainer and coarser 
tastes with the thousand refinements of European luxury. 
Our Ambassadors and their families, long accustomed to 
these refinements, from their necessary intercourse with 
courts, may adopt manners and opinions entirely at variance 
with those at home, and return to their former friends to 
give currency to pernicious tastes and habits. These are 
some of the causes which may add to the influence of Eu- 
ropean literature in the United States, and expose our free 
institutions, to be weakened and undermined by the energy 
of European eloquence. 

Far be it from me to believe, that the classes are nume- 
rous of the weak, or wavering, or dissatisfied, of the unprin- 
cipled ambitious, or the demagogues who may become their 
instruments. They have been hitherto too feeble and small 
in number to excite much attention ; but we know them to 
exist, and to believe that they will not encrease, would be to 
shut our eyes with perverse blindness to the common prin- 
ciples by which our nature is governed. 

That these causes have not been inoperative ; that the 
opinions and writings of Europe exercise a commanding 
influence over the minds of the American people, may be 
distinctly seen on more than one occasion. How do we 
writhe under the lash of their sarcasm and abuse. What 
indignation is excited ! The language of complaint is heard 
from Maine to Florida. Defence and retort fill the columns 
of our journals. If, on the other hand, a relenting re- 
viewer or convivial minister, in an hour of unusual good 
humour, melts into compliment on the American Republic, 
the words are hailed and echoed through all our States, 
like the response of some infallible oracle. We never ap- 
pear so thoroughly well-pleased with ourselves as when the 



15 

breezes of the ocean whisper in our ears the voice of praise 
from the opposite shore of the Atlantic. The passion for 
titles, of which we have been so often, and perhaps justly 
accused, proves that we are but half weaned from the pre- 
judices which their colonial education planted in the minds 
of the American people. "Excellency" and "honorable" are 
but substitutes for "marquis" and "duke," nor can the most 
sceptical doubt, that the man who delights in the unstable 
and transient title would be not unwilling to acquire and 
retain that which is more permanent and elevated. Have 
not the United States faithfully reflected, during the last 
forty years, the fluctuating opinions and conflicting inter- 
ests of turbulent and convulsed Europe ? Other shores, in- 
deed, less happy than these, exhibited the wrecks of the 
tempest, but the roar and swell, and agitation of the ele- 
ments were distinctly heard, and fell on our own. Have 
we not had our mad or enthusiastic projectors who mistook 
license for liberty ; our wild and visionary schemes of reck- 
less innovation, which confound freedom with the dissolution 
of all established forms? And whence were they? Not 
from the calm and temperate wisdom of the Fathers of Ame- 
rican liberty. They were of foreign origin. They sprang 
from that spirit, which, in Europe, actuated the unfettered 
slave, and which we freemen, even when dependent colo- 
nies mistook for the inspiration of a noble principle. Do 
not our statesmen, in the halls of Congress, support their 
schemes of policy by an appeal to the maxims and authority 
of the nations of Europe? Our plans fbr restricting com- 
merce and protecting manufactures, are maintained chiefly 
by an appeal to the practice and opinions of the govern- 
ment of England. The commercial policy of Great-Britain^, 
they tell us, has made her richer than the East, the ruler 
of India, the mistress of the ocean, the arbiter of Europe, 



16 

and this is deemed an adequate reply to all the science of 
the political economists. Nay, more, when British states- 
men are abandoning the doctrines which they formerly ad- 
vocated, with the common fate of imitators, we adhere to 
their fashions after they have been rejected by our masters. 
When the long struggle of avarice with humanity had 
ceased in Europe, and the exertions of Mr. Wilberforce 
and his followers were, at length, successful ; we also re- 
joiced that another nation was following where America had 
led. But success is dangerous, even to philanthropists. 
Their minds, long occupied with a favourite subject, became 
heated and inflamed ; visions of mistaken humanitv floated 
before their distempered imaginations ; and in the calm, and 
peace, and security, and enjoyment of England, they are 
now plotting desolation for the sunny islands of the South, 
and massacre for their unhappy proprietors. And what is 
their influence with us? True, as are the pulsations of the 
extremities of the body to those of the heart, the corres- 
ponding spirits of the United States re-echo the sentiments, 
and repeat the language of their exemplars. Our enthu- 
siasts are burning with unquenchable zeal. Our bigots, with 
the reckless contempt of consequences characteristic of their 
race, are bursting asunder the bonds that bind us in bro- 
therhood, and are lighting their torches of discord and civil 
strife from the kindred fires of England. There is the 
example, there the model of those mad schemes of mistaken 
philanthrophy, by which fools are seeking to revise and 
amend the designs of Providence, and which knaves are 
converting to their own selfish and flagitious purposes. To 
the influence of foreign opinions we may trace the origin of 
that double-faced society which turns to the South the ap- 
pearance of conciliation and kindness, and to the North, 
reveals the spirit of universal emancipation. It is not bit- 



17 

terness of spirit, that we perceive the coramunicated opinions 
of Europe thus operating to destroy the harmony of our 
country; and the wild and foolish schemes of Great Britain 
threatening to do what her armies and navies have vainly 
attempted to accomplish : and shall we continue to sit still 
whilst the influence of the old world is destroying the insti- 
tutions of the new? Are we content like the diseased man to 
wait the moving of the waters that must save us, and make 
no effort or exertion of our own f 

We have been accused by foreigners of national vanity 
when we enumerate the present advantages of our country. 
When we boast of the excellence of her government, her 
freedom, her intelligence, and anticipate her future wealth, 
power and greatness, we are assuredly neither moderate in 
our assumptions, nor careful lest we offend the vanity and 
prejudices of other nations. — It would be well for us to 
consider, that in occupying the first rank in the defence and 
extension of liberal opinions, we have assumed no unim- 
portant duties both to ourselves and the world. If our 
country be the most free, should we not be the most ardent, 
able, and persevering advocates of freedom ? If we are 
the most prompt to denounce monarchy as unfriendly to 
the end of all good government, the welfare of the people, 
should we not detect and expose its defects, and exhibit in 
proper colours its profligacy, heartlessness and crimes. — 
In the great arena of letters, what has America done for the 
cause she is so proud to support ? Before the mighty tri- 
bunal of opinion, where alone that cause must stand or fall, 
who are the advocates by whose energy and zeal the excel- 
lence of republics is asserted and maintained ? We are 
indebted to Mr. Walsh, and the North American Review, 
for triumphant vindications of our country from the libels 

of British travellers and reviewers. But where are our 

3 



18 

expositions of the general principles of Republican govern- 
ment ? Where, our exposure of the baseness, licentiousness, 
and meanness of courts ? In our systems of education, what 
provision has been made to excite in the bosoms of our 
children, the love of the republic ; to fix enlightened and 
liberal views of government deep in the minds of our youth, 
and to establish there, the strong conviction, that no other 
form of government is compatible with the highest possible 
attainments m knowledge, wisdom and happiness? What 
efforts have been made to give to the mass of the people of 
our country, distinct and definite ideas of the great leading 
principles by which their institutions are distinguished ? 
The twelve tables of the Roman law were taught to the 
children of the Roman republic ; how many citizens of our 
own, said to be liberally educated, grow up to manhood 
ignorant of the very outlines of our state and federal govern- 
ments ? Have we not seen within a few years, in our state, 
a total change of opinion on the prominent points of con- 
stitutional law. Could this again happen, if adequate pro- 
vision were made to instruct our youth in the principles of 
our government, and to give them science instead of the 
crude notions they may chance to gather from conversation 
or accident. To accomplish this object, no expence should 
be considered imprudence, nor should a liberal education 
be thought attainable unconnected with the study of the 
constitution and the laws. This alone is an adequate foun- 
dation for a national literature, adapted to our institutions, 
which it behooves us to cultivate and which alone can pro- 
tect us from the injurious influence exercised by the press 
of Europe. To such a cultivation of science and letters 
every thing urges and encourages. Excellence in the arts 
has been a distinguished feature of republics. It is the 
form of government which imparts to the mind it highest 



19 

perfection. The division of our country into sovereign 
states, will create the spirit of competition which performed 
miracles in the Italian republics, and our great confederacy 
allures aspiring genius with richer rewards than lies within 
the limits of any other nation of the world. If there is a 
portion of the republic, which more than another, requires a 
bold, manly and unshrinking appeal to public opinion : if 
there is one peculiarly threatened with the baleful influence 
of foreign or unfriendly doctrines, it is un questional 
own — and well will he merit the applause and s 
his fellow-citizens ; who undertakes the task of de^ 
is vain to sit still and fold our arms and talk of 
tempt for our adversaries. We cannot stand mu 
is great but she requires an advocate. We must not deceive 
ourselves. Maintain our peculiar institutions we must, as I 
firmly believe we can, by fearless appeals to reason, or we 
must abandon them. We must command public opinion 
or obey it. To resist, would be impossible. As wisely 
might we dream of arresting the broad, deep, eternal cur- 
rent, which bears to the ocean the accumulated waters of the 
west. 





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